Health Flexible Spending Accounts, previously known as Medical Expense Reimbursement Plans or Medical FSA plans are special accounts that allow employees to use pre-tax dollars to pay out of pocket medical expenses not covered by health insurance. The Health FSA reduces payroll taxes for both the employer and the employee making it a popular benefit option. For the employee it’s like getting a 30% discount on medical, dental and vision care expenses. The employer realizes up to 10% in matching FICA and FUTA tax savings.

Summary: The Internal Revenue Service released Notice 2012-40 providing guidance on the application of the Affordable Care Act’s $2,500 limit on employee pre-tax contributions to health fsa’s. Effective for plan years after December 31, 2012 Health Care Reform (ACA, ObamaCare) limits Health FSA contributions to $2,500 per plan year for employee contributions. Employers may also contribute to a Health FSA (flex credits) in excess of the $2,500 annual limit.

A cafeteria plan offering a health FSA will need to be amended to comply with the $2,500 limit. If a cafeteria plan utilizing a Health FSA is not timely amended, it fails to qualify as a cafeteria plan and/or Health FSA. All employee elections of nontaxable benefits under the plan, (e.g., health FSA salary reductions and health plan premium payments), must be included as gross income to the employees.

Permitted Carryover of Up to $500 Provides Greater Flexibility to Plan Participants

10/31/2013

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS today issued a notice modifying the longstanding “use-or-lose” rule for health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs). To make health FSAs more consumer-friendly and provide added flexibility, the updated guidance permits employers to allow plan participants to carry over up to $500 of their unused health FSA balances remaining at the end of a plan year.

“Across the administration, we are always looking for ways to provide added flexibility and commonsense solutions to how people pay for their healthcare,” said Secretary Jacob J. Lew. “Today’s announcement is a step forward for hardworking Americans who wisely plan for health care expenses for the coming year.”

The Department of Treasury has modified its FSA “use-it-or-lose-it” provision to allow a limited rollover of FSA funds.

Details are as follows:

Effective in plan year 2014, employers that offer FSA programs will have the option of allowing participants to roll over up to $500 of unused funds at the end of the plan year.

Effective immediately, employers that offer FSA programs that do not include a grace period will have the option of allowing employees to roll over up to $500 of unused funds at the end of the current 2013 plan year.

The major benefits of this new “rollover” provision include:

Eliminating the most significant impediment to FSA adoption (use-it-or-lose-it) – creating significant upside for FSA adoption growth, which has been limited over the past several years

Minimizing risk for constituents with unpredictable healthcare expenses, such as those dealing with chronic conditions that may necessitate high-cost procedures/services with ambiguous timing or medical necessity

What Is a Health FSA and How Does It Work?

Here’s how FSA Plans work:

Each year the sponsoring employer allows an FSA open enrollment period where each employee is given the opportunity to decide how much money they estimate they’ll spend in healthcare, dental and vision care expenses for the coming year. Each employee then elects this amount to be divided into regular payroll deductions and deposited into their Health FSA account.

Employees then turn in receipts for qualifying medical, dental and vision care expenses to be reimbursed from their tax-free Health FSA account.

What About FSA Administration, Do I Need An FSA Administrator?

That depends. Most of our competitors would try and convince you FSA Administration is much too difficult for you to try yourself, and then they assign your account to one of their lowest paid employees.

If you prefer not to add the additional workload to your staff Core Documents offers state-of-the-art online administrative services starting at only $9 a month.

Each employee receives a MasterCard Debit Card to access the funds in their account without having to spend their own money and wait for reimbursement.

When Is The Best Time To Start A FSA Plan?

Anytime. Health FSA Plans can be started anytime.

The misconception is they need to be started January 1 and run through December 31.

The fact is you can start a Plan anytime of the year.

If you prefer a calendar year, January 1, through December 31, and it’s mid-year, you can always have a short Plan Year the first year, i.e. June 1, through December 31, and your second year will be back on a calendar Plan Year.

However, it is not unusual to align the Plan Year to your tax year, the renewal of health insurance, or any other reason. Our application addresses Short Plan Years if requested.

What About Existing Section 125 FSA Plans Already In Place, That Need To Be Updated?

If you already have an FSA Plan you started years ago, you can amend and restate the Plan anytime.

We simply need the original start date of your old plan so we can maintain the continuity back to the original start date.

It’s not unusual for a employer to misplace a Plan Document and need to replace it.

If your document was written before 2010, it certainly needs to updated as soon as possible.

So many changes have taken place in IRS Code and new laws that today’s Plan Document is almost 15 pages larger than documents prior to 2010. This means you may be making administrative decisions based on outdated information.

So What Exactly Will I Get From Core Documents for $129, How Does This Work?

The Section 125 Health FSA Plan can be combined with the Section 125 Premium Only Plan and a Section 129 Dependent Care Assistance Plan for a full plan. Many purchase just one of the three components. It’s up to you and your specific needs.

Core Documents provides you with custom FSA plan documents prepared specifically from the variable criteria you provide in the application. We do not sell fill-in-the blank document templates that can be used for numerous clients. You will receive a single user license for the Plan Document, or combination of Plan Documents of your choice.

Section 5 contains a complete Administrative Guide designed to be a resource as needed for administrative questions.

For an additional fee you can purchase a CD with the Summary Plan Description in PDF format and the Forms in MS Word format for revision, edits, etc. Without the Forms on the disk you will have to photocopy the Summary Plan Description as needed for all employees and type changes into the forms.

Your signature ready custom Health FSA Plan Document will arrive via email shortly after you place the order. If you choose the deluxe printed 3-ring binder option it will arrive normally within a week via Priority Mail.

Your plan document will include a complimentary summary of Plan Sponsor responsibilities.

You do not have to file a copy of the Plan Document with any governmental entity.

Also, Annual 5500 filing was suspended in 2002 for all plans except those with over 100 participants in a Health FSA. (That was 100 Participants, not 100 Employees, and it only applies to Health FSA Plans).

You will distribute a copy of the Summary Plan Description to every Eligible Employee and a copy of the Election forms.

Every employee should complete a new Election form designating their specific deductions each year.

These forms should remain on file in the event of an audit or review.

Do I need a Trust Account or Special Bank Account to Hold The Funds?

No trust account is required by the IRS Code. ERISA may require a special trust account, however they have decided not to enforce the need for a trust account. It is generally accepted that a trust account is not necessary if separate accounting is maintained within the company’s general asset account.

Refund Policy: Purchaser understands that goods and services provided by Core Documents, Inc. are non-refundable. Orders cancelled prior to shipping are subject to cancellation fees applied to the cost of goods and services provided during the review, draft, and preparation of your order.